PRIMITIVE COLOR VISION. 47 



In Murray Island, in the eastern part of Torres Strait, where we 

 stayed for four months, I was able to investigate the language used 

 for color very completely. In this island there was a very definite 

 name for red, 'mamamamam,' while several other names, such as 'kiami- 

 kiam,' 'eroko, mamamamam' and *somer-mamamamam,' were used for 

 purples and pinks. There were two definite names used for both 

 orange and yellow, 'bambam' and 'siusiu,' and one definite word for 

 green, 'soskepusoskep,' while several other words were occasionally 

 used. There was, however, no native name for blue, apart from that 

 used for black, 'golegole.' This word was used by many of the older 

 men, and, as in Kiwai, the brilliant blue of the sky and the deep blue 

 of the sea would often be called by the same name as the darkest 

 black. Many of the natives had, however, adopted the English word, 

 which, by re-duplication and separation of contiguous consonants, had 

 become 'bulu-biilu,' and many of the younger men believed that this 

 word belonged to their own language. 



The color language of the western tribe of Papuans in Torres 

 Strait was fully investigated in the Island of Mabuiag. Here the 

 vocabulary was more definite. There were a limited number of terms 

 which were used by nearly all for the chief colors. Red and yellow 

 were called 'kulkadgamulnga' and 'murdgamulnga' respectively. There 

 was a fairly definite term for green, 'ildagamulnga,' which was, how- 

 ever, sometimes used for blue, and there was a term for blue, 'malud- 

 gamulnga,' which was also used not infrequently for green. In addi- 

 tion to these four more or less definite color names, other terms were 

 used for different shades, and a few natives showed extraordinary in- 

 genuity in devising special names, apparently on the spur of the mo- 

 ment, for different shades of color. I have a list of over thirty such 

 names from one individual, all derived from a comparison with natural 

 objects. 



In these four languages of Seven Rivers, Kiwai, Murray Island and 

 Mabuiag, we have progressive stages in the evolution of color language; 

 in the lowest there appears only to be a definite term for red apart 

 from white and black; in the next stage there are definite terms for 

 red and yellow, and an indefinite term for green; in the next stage there 

 are definite terras for red, yellow and green, and a term for blue has 

 been borrowed from another language; while in the highest stage there 

 are terms for both green and blue, but these tend to be confused with 

 one another. It is interesting to note that the order in which these 

 four tribes are thus placed, on the ground of the development of their 

 color language, corresponds with the order in which they would be 

 placed on the ground of their general intellectual and cultural de- 

 velopment. 



It is said that there are other races, such as the Todas of Southern 



